


To Attempt a Breakaway

by donutsweeper



Category: The Losers (2010)
Genre: Getting Together, M/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-21
Updated: 2016-12-21
Packaged: 2018-09-10 22:28:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8941885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/donutsweeper/pseuds/donutsweeper
Summary: After being alone with Jensen for several days on an op, Cougar decides to take a risk and make his feelings known.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lanyon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lanyon/gifts).



> A Yuletide treat for pinch hitter extraordinaire, lanyon!

"What's your opinion on the offsides trap, Cougar?"

Having worked with Jensen for as long as he had, Cougar was used to random asides and bizarre babble, but this particular question still seemed to come out of nowhere. It was just the two of them on the op, Cougar observing while they waited for their target to show and then, once he did, prepared for the kill order would most likely follow while Jensen acted as his backup and worked the comms, ready to relay any order that he received. They were set up on a rocky ledge about seven hundred yards from their target's base of operations, a former logging camp that had been repurposed as a weapons storage site.

It was windy and cold, the thin tarp they'd spread out did little to stop the chill from seeping up from the ground and settling into his bones. They'd covered themselves with a ghillie blanket to keep them safe from prying eyes, but it wasn't a terribly heavy one and as the weather changed and the temperature continued to fall Cougar couldn't help but begin to shiver.

Jensen, lying next to Cougar with his equipment spread out next to him in the lee against the cliff face, as protected from the weather as they could manage, bumped shoulders and prodded, "Offsides trap, Cougs. Your opinion, hit me with it." 

"It is bad?" Cougar offered, a little helplessly. Offsides? Earlier in the day Jensen had regaled Cougar with the history of undergarments and how rayon blends led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Following Jensen's logic regarding fabric and its impact on communism had been a little confusing, but no more so than Jensen's typical fare, but now the topic had apparently shifted and they were discussing soccer? Maybe?

"Damn right, it's bad. Do you ever think—" Jensen held up a finger in a 'just a sec' motion and fiddled with the radio for a moment and adjusted his headset so that it covered both his ears before huffing and pushing it back to only over his left. "Do you ever think that's kind of what we do? Wait around for orders that are basically setting us up to fall into an offsides trap?"

"An offsides trap," Cougar parroted, because if he'd learned anything, he'd learned that step one to surviving Jensen's conversational ice floes was to just let the man continue pushing them along their course, unabated.

"Yeah, you know, in soccer where the defense sees that there's a striker coming down the field, hoping to get the ball passed to him so he can score, but they set him up and purposely let him run past them before he gets it so it's an illegal move and the ref has to penalize him, but if they fuck it up and he gets the ball before they move or the ref either doesn't see or doesn't call it and they get scored on then they look like idiots. Well, that's like us, isn't it? We're sitting here, waiting for the order so we can do our job, but if it gets given too soon we'll get caught in an offsides trap but instead of having the refs blow their whistle at us it's a shitton of assholes with guns shooting at us and if the order comes too late we miss our opportunity and the whole op's blown to hell. You know?"

Cougar made a vague, affirmative noise despite not really following Jensen's logic in any real way whatsoever.

"Or maybe we don't get a call at all and we're one of those players who runs their hearts out for ninety minutes of game play and never accomplishes anything. You ever think of that?"

"Or maybe you have soccer on the brain because you have been spending too much time thinking about the Petunia's defense again."

"Maybe," Jensen allowed.

"Probably."

"Okay, yeah, probably. I can be a little soccer obsessed at times, I'll give you that, but they might make the playoffs this year! You know how big a deal that is?"

"It is a very big deal." His role as honorary uncle would not allow him to give any other response. 

"I just miss her, you know?" Jensen rolled onto his back, tucking his hands under his head. "It's been fifteen days and a whole lot of nothing happening here and there's no wifi and I can't even get a decent satellite linkup and this asshole hasn't even shown and—"

"And you miss her."

"Yeah."

They lay there in silence for a few moments, Cougar staring out his scope with Jensen stretched out on the tarp next to him. "This mission," Cougar said eventually, hesitantly. "It has not been all bad, no?" He carefully did not look over at Jensen as he continued, "Without the team, I mean. Just you and me?" There had always been something between the two of them, an understanding of some kind, where Cougar didn't have to use words to have Jensen know what he was trying to say and during their time together on this op he felt that their connection had only gotten stronger.

Jensen rolled to his side and Cougar could feel himself being picked apart by the man's gaze until he finally replied, "Yeah. You and me, together. Here. That part's been good. More than good. Great even." Jensen started speaking quicker and quicker as he went on, a sure sign of nervousness.

Cougar was a sniper; he was always watching, observing his surroundings and the people around him. Most of the time it was necessary, part of what kept him alive, but it was not the reason he'd been watching Jensen so carefully this past year. He had liked Jensen from the moment they'd met, when Roque all but threw him at Cougar and Pooch saying, "This is our new tech and comms guy. I'm gonna kill him if I have to spend another minute listening to him talk. You two show him around so I don't gotta explain to Clay why I slit his throat before his transfer papers were even dry." Roque had pulled out one of his larger knives and had been waving it menacingly in Jensen's face as he spoke, but Jensen had merely shrugged at the lack of both introduction and decorum and laughed.

Jensen had a great laugh.

It hadn't been easy, though, trying to ascertain if Jensen would be interested in him. From the way he talked and what he commented on, Cougar had thought he might be bisexual, but even if that were true Don't Ask Don't Tell had left its scars on those who served and, as a result, many soldiers were wary and cautious when it came to admitting to liking someone of the same sex. There was also the whole teammate issue as well. There was a certain level of trust and respect required between those you needed to watch your back and you had to be certain everyone would trust each other equally. Two of the five of them pairing up could affect the team's dynamic and if things between them ended badly the Losers themselves might not weather the breakup.

But, damn it, he wanted to know. It was a risk, but one he couldn't put off making. Not any longer. "It could be better though, don't you think?" Cougar began carefully. "It has been very cold, especially at night. I saw you shivering during your shift." 

"You were supposed to be sleeping then, Cougs. That's kind of the whole point of taking shifts. One watches while the other sleeps."

Cougar raised a shoulder in a halfhearted shrug. He had slept as much as he needed, the same as he had the other nights they'd been on this op, but then used the rest of the time as an opportunity to watch Jensen unobserved. "It does not change the fact you were cold." Jensen had spent his shift with his sleeping bag unzipped and wrapped around him like a cocoon, muttering occasionally at his equipment and blowing on his hands to keep them warm.

"It is what it is. It's not like we can light a fire or something and we used up those instant heat packs two days ago."

"You could wear my hat," Cougar offered. "It might help."

"Your hat."

"Sí."

"Cougar, you don't let _anyone_ touch your hat, let alone wear it. You nearly gutted that guy in Guam who tried to grab it."

"I did not like him." Cougar's tone was flat and even but a bit of hopeful. He was trusting that not only would Jensen be able to parse out what he wasn't saying, but he'd be accepting of it and feel the same way.

"But you like Pooch and when Pooch…." Jensen trailed off, before abruptly sitting up, shifting as far away from Cougar as he could manage in their little space. "This isn't some kind of DADT version of an offsides trap here is it, Cougs? Because I'm kind of thinking no but I don't want to get my hopes up for nothing."

"It is no trap." Cougar risked looking away from their target for a moment to see Jensen's face. There was hope there, mixed with a noticeable amount of worry and maybe a little bit of desire.

"I didn't know you liked guys. I mean, there was that thing in Honduras and I don't care how much you protested, you were definitely staring at that guy's ass. Which was totally understandable! It was a nice ass! But, yeah, in general I thought you were into women, not men."

"I like women, but not only women. It is safer, however, for people to think that is the case."

"Yeah, I hear you on that one." Jensen pulled off the headset and ran hand a hand over his face and then through his hair before shoving it back in place, over his left ear, but leaving his right uncovered to make it easier to hear Cougar. "I guess you knew about me then. Being bi I mean, I know I'm not great with the ladies, but I thought I came across more as geeky outcast rather than bisexual with a strong preference for men."

"I wasn't certain, but I decided the risk of asking was outweighed by the reward if I was correct," Cougar admitted, before quickly adding, "And I do not think you are a geeky outcast."

"No?" Jensen inched closer.

"No."

"So what do you think I am?" The question was asked lightheartedly, teasingly, but Cougar could sense a touch of apprehension, of a true desire to know, behind it as well.

"You are Jensen," he replied simply. "You are geeky, yes, but not an outcast. Those who treat you as such are fools and do not see you for who you truly are."

"Cougar, I think that's like the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me."

"It is the truth."

Jensen smiled but then made a vague, frustrated noise and readjusted the headset. "I'm starting to get some chatter over the radio. I promise you, though, this conversation is not over, not over at all."

"So when the op is done?" Cougar asked, hopefully.

"Then we finish this." Jensen gestured emphatically at Cougar and them himself. "And start something new."


End file.
